Ukiyo Melbourne — Attraction in Melbourne

(TLDR: worth doing. More detailed review below)

I echo what many others have already said - the rooms are very immersive, designed with serious artistic focus. You won’t be seeing Bunnings 4 digit locks or laminated paper clues with italicised times new roman font here.

On that note, it is definitely not an ‘escape’ room in the sense of just solving puzzles to escape OUT of the room, but more of an escape in terms of escaping INTO a ‘world’ and diving into the narrative, the characters and the like.

Note: It’s not easy to write reviews on escape rooms because specificity would mean spoilers, but being too vague makes the review a bit less useful, so here is hopefully my balanced attempt at giving a helpful review that won’t spoil.

Crumbling Prince -

the pacing and tempo of the experience can best be summed up by my ending reflective comment ‘Oh, 80 minutes had passed already?’.

I appreciated the tactile searching for items, which were hidden with thoughtful intent (meaning, it wasn’t just locked up somewhere...because it was locked up somewhere).

The AI Prince was very fascinating - a big deviation from the typical walkie talkie or some computer screen in the corner that spews out hints. His interaction pushed the story along and triggered various sensory elements (lights, music, hints). You are left with the feeling that this was a ’theatrical’ experience of sorts.

Part 2 delves deeper into the backstory and involves much more problem solving, and less dealing with the aforementioned AI Prince. It continues to give pleasant surprises in terms of intentional puzzles and using technology to enhance the experience.

To be honest, sequels are never easy to make happen (think movies) since it may not hold the allure of the initial world building + character development of the first instalment, but part 2 was an overall good job.

Deep space -

The AI is again a highlight. The dog connects with you and helps give a layer of depth to the escape - it wasn’t just ‘do a list of things’ on the spaceship. Perhaps this room is best described as those ‘choose your own adventure’ story books or games, where your choices have consequences.

Like the other rooms, the voiceovers and sound design is top notch - giving a very ’spatial’ feel to what space travel would feel, including distant sounds, cabin alarms etc. It is faithful to the genre and not just some random background music that just loops for the duration of the experience.

The puzzles were a variety - some tactile involving finding things hidden, sometimes certain compartments would open, sometimes you rebooted a system, sometimes decoding, sometimes using the intermediary airlock as a transfer hub.

(On our plays, a particular item that needs to be operated remotely was a recurring pain point for us due to its malfunctioning, but the game creators have graciously accepted our issues with that item.)

The different stakeholders of the deep space story was quite well crafted. It definitely got me thinking and conjecturing on what was going on. I always appreciate survival stories that involve conflict of interest and withholding information for a later reveal. (apologies I can’t be too specific otherwise it runs into spoiler territory).

Part 2 was not as littered with puzzles as the first part, and in some senses was less memorable than the first. One shining light though would be the antagonistic AI (not the aforementioned dog - he’s too wholesome) - in that, it’s not often that you are up against a passionately aggressive voice who wants to dictate your actions. Ukiyo did well in adjusting the different paths and outcomes through their design mapping.

Overall I’d recommend that you try all 4 rooms if you can.

If time and cost is an issue, try the first instalments of both.

Allow some time post-escape to chat and discuss about the story, about what puzzles who solved, and the vibe/world...

I have had a long thought about leaving this review. I initially wanted to leave this review to warn other potential customers. Then I read the souvenir provided by the staff member that read

'would it be easier to forgive people, if you knew they were trying their best'

In some ways I knew this was pity play but in other ways I believed it to be genuine as well. That is why I didn't leave a review. Today playing back my experience last month I thought about the value proposition of my experience in the deep space escape room and just felt disappointed all over again. Hence this review.

Firstly, I do not appreciate being lied to. I was lied to twice, the first time was that there is no time limit to the escape room and the second lie was that the staff member who briefed us was not the ai dog. I feel like that is just disingenuous. There was no need to lie that there was no time limit, in the end the staff member rushed us out of the room before we even made a final decision. In hindsite it was obvious why he did that, which was because there was another group waiting for him in the lobby. But why lie to people about that at all, it was so unnecessary.

Secondly the staff member being the ai dog, it was just insulting to be lied to so blatantly. You could just say that you are going to play a different role and leave it at that.

There was alot of build up in the actual room which was told to us to be 'not an escape room in the conventional sense' which was not advertised anywhere, we were expecting this place to be an escape room. Ok fine it's a role play, however the story opened so many plot lines without any clean resolution to any of them and ended so abruptly. There was also not many puzzles for our small group of 4, so the majority of the time we had a bunch of us standing around with nothing to do.

The reactor puzzle was so poorly designed. It was meant to be a team puzzle, but the person handling the rods could just lean over to see through the glass on the side by themselves. Poor game design.

There was also background about some company, some altruistic founder, some other spaceship with no details about anything and no closure at at the end of the room. So many plot holes opened with no closure at all. It was kind of like the disaster that was the final season of game of thrones.

If you are here for an intellectual challenge or an engaging story this is not the place. If you come here just to have a casual time with relaxed friends it might be more suitable.

Regardless of this experience, I could still somewhat run with it until I thought about the price of this experience. It was a room that represented a lot of hard work, without much depth of thought. The room was done nicely but the experience itself was very disappointing. The space could have been used so many better. Sorry for the tangent, back to the price. This escape room/role play whatever is just way overpriced for such an unpolished experience. There are amazing escape rooms for the same price or even cheaper in Sydney. This place doesn't even come close.

Tldr. It would've been ok at a lower price point, I would've expected less. Given the price point we paid, the experience did not meet expectations. I don't like being lied to or guilt tripped by fridge magnets. Sorry, just my...

Absolutely incredible, clearly designed and run with a great deal of passion. I found Ukiyo online while traveling in Melbourne and reached out about setting up a solo session. Not only did the staff go out of their way to accommodate me, but running the Crumbling Prince alone ended up being one of the most fun and unique experiences I had in Melbourne. Highly recommend Ukiyo to anyone, even those not keen on or experienced with escape room-type activities. Special thanks to Beth for setting up my session, and David for being such a great host!

Edit: I find myself thinking back to this experience often over a year later and find my original review lacking. I have been a fan of Studio Ghibli movies since a young age and have never had an experience that so closely emulated being a protagonist in one of their films. Both my solo sessions of The Crumbling Prince felt awkward and fumbling at times, but in the way that a first attempt at a classic PC puzzle game like Myst might be. I was immediately taken by the beautifully crafted environment and the experience of interacting with what I can only describe as a real life quest NPC, to the degree that I essentially forgot I was on a time limit and just wanted to exist in the world I had been introduced to. I can only imagine this caused difficulty for my host as I was inspecting trees and a stream while chatting to the Prince during the time I was meant to be solving puzzles.

As far as I am concerned, The Crumbling Prince is not an escape room, it is an escape into a fantasy world should you choose to let your imagination take the wheel. The decision to have participants don masks clearly indicates this to me; beyond the puzzle solving abilities the masks provide, they give a chance to let go of yourself as a individual and to simply be a character in a contained and immersive fantasy scenario. From the time I was introduced to my host until the end of the room the main point seemed to be that I should enjoy the experience and leave my self-consciousness at the door. This may be different in a group than my experience as a solo player, but the kindness and accommodation I was shown by all members of the Ukiyo team made it possible for me.

I never once felt pressured by my game host David and never felt as if I was missing out on the core experience of the room, despite the fact that I was an anomaly as a solo. I was gently pulled to the conclusion of the first scenario, got genuine goosebumps from the finale of the room (I found myself very invested in playing my character, perhaps a perk of running the Crumbling Prince solo given the excellent dialogue writing) and came back for more a few weeks later. Being more comfortable with the puzzle and room format I immediately felt a part of the world and was loathed to leave it at the conclusion of the second scenario.

I can genuinely say my time at Ukiyo felt like a return to childhood make-believe play, and I wish that I could return to allow my friends and family to experience it too. I sincerely hope the team behind Ukiyo continues to be recognized for this incredible project, because I could easily see their experiences being conducted on a much grander scale. Truly a can't-miss, I'm halfway across the world wishing I could...